The present invention is directed generally to liquid dosage dispensers and, in particular, to a package which dispenses a selected precise amount of a liquid, such as medicine, in predetermined dosages. In addition, the dispenser may include a compliance indication with programmability features.
Medicine in liquid form is well known, as are systems which allow for measurement of particular dosages to different individuals. For example, a particular liquid cough medicine might have one dosage for young children, a second dosage for teenagers, and a third dosage for adults, to provide the appropriate benefits of the medicine for each age group.
A common form for measuring appropriate dosages includes providing a premarked dosage cup with lines or other indicia to indicate the appropriate dosage. Other liquid medicines may provide a spoon type device or eye dropper, again with indicia to allow a user to remove the appropriate dosage from a bottle, which is then dispensed into the user's mouth or a cup or the like.
Such systems for measuring dosages of medicine have proven cumbersome and may provide inaccurate dosages, resulting perhaps in either underdosing or overdosing.
In another situation, patients who are often required to take liquid medicine on a regular basis and their physicians would prefer using a compliance package which identifies the number of times or time of day that the medicine is taken, as well as to provide a precise measurement thereof.
The present invention provides an adjustable liquid dosage dispenser and a liquid compliance package with programmable dosage features which overcome the shortcomings of the prior art systems while providing desirable features of construction and ease of operation.